Chopper for cutting fiber continuously, and method
AssigneeJohns Manville International, Inc.
InventorsRussell D. Arterburn, Randall C. Bascom, Shawn E. Dennis, Douglas J. Kempski
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
A new type of multi-chopper for cutting strands or ribbon shaped material such as strands of glass fibers, and a method of using this chopper, is disclosed. The chopper has at least two chopper assemblies on a rotating frame. When one chopper assembly needs repair, the frame is rotated which brings a rebuilt or repaired chopper assembly into operating position quickly and also brings the assembly needing repair into a position where it can be worked on while the other chopper is operating resulting in much reduced downtime. The frame of the chopper can rotate around a vertical or horizontal line, or around a line passing through two opposite corners of a frame.
Claims5
In a chopping apparatus comprising a backup roll and a chopping roll, the improvement comprising apparatus for starting a new strand into the chopper comprising:
- a first starting roll located between an axis of the backup roll on the chopper and the axis of an oscillating roll located upstream of the chopper,
- a second starting roll located beyond and above the chopper roll and an accelerator roll, said first starting roll having an escapement for the new strand and located such that at least a portion of the path of said strand passing between the first starting roll and the second starting roll extends beyond the vertical plane made by the outer vertical face of said backup roll.
A method of starting a new strand into a chopper comprising a backup roll and a chopper roll, the improvement comprising placing the new strand in a starting area on a bottom side of an oscillating roll, up over the starting area of a first starting roll, under the starting area of the second starting roll and up over an accelerator roll and tripping a starting switch which starts the accelerator roll accelerating, waiting until the accelerator roll is up to the desired full speed, then moving the running strand down beyond an outer diameter of the oscillating roll, then moving the running strand to alignment with a desired groove in a grooved portion of the oscillating roll, which action will move the strand off the end of the first starting roll and onto the backup roll and under the idler roll where the new strand will enter a chopping nip between the backup roll and the chopper roll and be chopped continuously, and then allowing the running strand to rise into the desired groove on the oscillating roll.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.